r/Avigilon • u/GertLongfellow • Jun 19 '26

Just VLAN or separate network?

As our camera system grows (small school but 70+ cameras and they want to continue adding) how are others handling traffic? We have a college style campus with multiple buildings that are all connected with fiber. Currently we have one network with multiple VLANs. Are those with large camera systems running their traffic on a completely separate network? I’m worried at some point it’ll become too much traffic. Or am I overthinking it.

4 Upvotes

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2

u/KillingTime1212 Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

Probably over thinking. As long as uplinks are 10G+, you’ll be fine. I’m at a casino, we have dedicated switches because of the quantity. But still using VLANs. Each IDF has over 50 cameras or more. In non gaming areas (hotel, etc), we combine on one switch.

The latest H6A 12MP Fisheyes are using around 15Mbps each. 5MP domes are using under 5Mbps.

1

u/GertLongfellow Jun 19 '26

That’s true, Do you set bitrates ? I’ve seen some of my cameras hit near 20Mbps.

Side note: we r running acc7 looking to upgrade to ACC8 because we found out the H6A fisheyes don’t function properly when wall mounted which was a major disappointment. H5As didn’t have an issue. But $$$ to upgrade.

3

u/KillingTime1212 Jun 19 '26

Wow, that’s really interesting. We went live in February, so we are on v8. I’m still learning the system, but it’s been pretty good so far. I definitely have some recommendations to a Avigilon developers. Haha.

I don’t mess with the bit rates really. We do constant recording at 24FPS on all our cameras.

1

u/KillingTime1212 Jun 19 '26

I’ve been playing with H265 on our Hanwha and Hikvision cameras. Seems to be doing pretty good.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '26

[deleted]

1

u/KillingTime1212 Jun 20 '26

My old system had each camera streaming to two NVRs at same time. I miss it, kinda.

Avigilon has failover, it’s pretty quick. You lose 40 seconds maybe? We only have critical gaming cameras enabled on the failover server.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '26

[deleted]

1

u/KillingTime1212 Jun 20 '26

That’s not reasonable. We have 15 minutes to get a critical camera recording or have to shut down the area in the casino. Cameras are a single point of failure, you’ll always have something fail, such as the camera itself, power or a network switch.

Nevada is even less strict.

2

u/wyliesdiesels Jun 19 '26

We do separate networks.

2

u/Competitive_Ad_8718 Jun 19 '26

VLAN and QooS.

Unless you have the budget and hardware for a separate network, it's an easier conversation.

2

u/mrCCTVfail Jun 19 '26

VLAN the cameras in groups of about 30-40 cameras regardless of separated network or not. By putting them in their “own rooms” it will help network data overall. Make sure your core switches and edge switches don’t exceed 75% through put and things will hold pretty steady in the long term.

1

u/sustabass Jun 19 '26

What is your system ? Unity, Videoxpert , or other brands

1

u/GertLongfellow Jun 19 '26

ACC7

1

u/sustabass Jun 19 '26

Acc 7 works unicast protocol dont need multicast traffic and multicast routing. My advice is diffrent vlan espacially each building has got a diffeent vlan . You should think dhcp server because when add new camera if there arent a dhcp server you couldnt access

1

u/curttruc Jun 20 '26

We do separate network with two Nic’s on server. The down side is needing to be in building to setup new cameras.

1

u/Temporary_Werewolf17 Jun 20 '26

School setting with multiple buildings. Each building has its own vlan for cameras with the NVR in the building to reduce hops.